Privacy Awareness and Support for Privacy Encroaching Policies: An Experimental Approach

The expanding prominence of the internet in people’s daily lives presents them with having to make increasingly more decisions regarding their privacy online. The privacy paradox brings an interesting phenomenon into these decisions. This concept describes the discrepancy between people’s attitude and behaviour towards privacy. Following one of the explanatory models of the privacy paradox, this quantitative thesis investigates the role of privacy awareness on privacy encroaching policies. It does so by an experimental research design consisting of a survey, which resulted in a sample of 69 participants. Results of this study show that, although a negative relationship between the two variables exist, this relationship cannot be concluded with certainty as the results prove not statistically significant. Therefore, this thesis aligns with the argument of the ongoing debate on privacy awareness that states that privacy awareness does not have a significant influence on support for...Show moreThe expanding prominence of the internet in people’s daily lives presents them with having to make increasingly more decisions regarding their privacy online. The privacy paradox brings an interesting phenomenon into these decisions. This concept describes the discrepancy between people’s attitude and behaviour towards privacy. Following one of the explanatory models of the privacy paradox, this quantitative thesis investigates the role of privacy awareness on privacy encroaching policies. It does so by an experimental research design consisting of a survey, which resulted in a sample of 69 participants. Results of this study show that, although a negative relationship between the two variables exist, this relationship cannot be concluded with certainty as the results prove not statistically significant. Therefore, this thesis aligns with the argument of the ongoing debate on privacy awareness that states that privacy awareness does not have a significant influence on support for privacy encroaching policies. Concluding, this thesis emphasizes the need for reassessment of the factor privacy awareness in other conditions, as well as the continuation of research of other explanatory factors.Show less

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Privacy Awareness and Support for Privacy Encroaching Policies: An Experimental Approach